3 months before my 15th birthday we landed on the Moon. The decade long quest to reach the seemingly unattainable was at an end. Or, perhaps it was only the beginning.
It was a Sunday, and we were all sitting in front of our television sets, wondering, hoping, for the landing to go well. It did. The actual landing took place at 1:47 PM, with only 40 seconds of fuel left. It wasn't until 10:56 PM that Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lander.
As he descended the ladder from the Lunar Module, which had been attached to the Apollo 11 spacecraft, he uttered the words he had so carefully gone over in his head during the 5 day, 240,000 mile journey. "That's one small step for (a) man. And one giant leap for Mankind." Almost 30 minutes later he was joined by Edward "Buzz" Aldrin on the srface. Michael Collins was orbiting in the Apollo 11 capsule.
The next day, a Monday, the nespapers in New York City carried the dateline on their front pages as "Moonday, July 21, 1969." It was a time of elation and a time of wonder. It was a day which no one could ever forget.
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